Nina Luna "Restless Romantic" Album Review
Review by: Dani Erin, Writer @danierinmusic
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Editor @PlaylistTC
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I have this vision of being let into Nina Luna’s apartment. When I walk in it is perfectly Feng Shuied with both thrifted and classic pieces. It is thoughtful, playful and uniquely her. Each possession I see tells a story. I walk into her living room and pick up fractions of her life, a polaroid picture gallery of moments passed. A coffee mug half filled with expensive wine and lipstick smudges. Then as I cross her warped wooden floors with each step signify the creek of age. I enter her bedroom where her diary lay open on the bed. Do I read it? I go closer to it but I get this sense that she is right behind me. It's so personal and so tempting but I resist. When I listen to Restless Romantic I get this feeling that we are listening to a page straight out of her diary. Nina’s most personal, most present self expressed through her greatest strength- creating music.
“Wilderness” is the first track, consider this the amuse bouche. Her voice is so familiar, like you have known her for years. It's relaxed yet vibrant. She sometimes performs live but is a true one woman band. Producing, writing and arranging all her music which is crazy impressive. This track's orchestration is addictive, spacey and pairs perfectly with her sultry vocals. I asked her about her process and this is what she had to say. “I always liked to sing, I took guitar and piano lessons, and then I started writing songs when I was around 11 years old. I started messing around with production on Garageband towards the end of college in 2013, and have been teaching myself to produce and mix my own music since then.” A true multi-talented badass woman in music, they are rare yet fierce.
“Blow My Mind” is a lullaby for the broken-hearted. This is when we get a glimpse into a situation of a one way love journey and all the doubt that goes into that super fun rollercoaster ride. This was the song that made me think she ripped a page out of her journal and put music behind it. A deeply personal situation we can all relate to. Maybe it was all the things she wished she said, all the things she wished she knew now since that love has passed.
My favorite song is “Songbirds”. The chorus will get caught in your head “songbirds only travel at night by the light of the stars, I’ll drink my gin talking to a stranger, spend my last $20 at the bar. ” Awwww to be a fly on that wall, I wonder about the story behind this song. Either way it's a great song. She added Jake Baldwin on trumpet and he adds this call back effect throughout the track which is an excellent touch. Days later you will be standing in a relentless grocery store checkout line humming these lyrics and the melody. You have been warned.
Track five entitled “Too Much” starts out very unsuspecting. You aren't sure where the song is going to go until the chorus hits. This is the genius of Nina Luna’s compositions. The hook is always there but as the listener you are never sure when it's coming. She is an exceptional song writer. The verse always grabs you but her hooks are what makes you continue to listen. Then the songs all come together and make complete sense. She is really good at changing the flow, the energy creeps up on you and by the time you know it you are singing “I'm scared of being too much, scared that this might be the final straw” very loudly in your shower. Again, you have been warned.
“Lines” should just be everyone's life anthem. Not conforming to societal norms and accepting oneself. Is this Nina’s journey or all of our journeys? It's uplifting and reassuring. She has this depth about her that feels like she has lived many lives. Both the melody & lyrics are empowering and needed when you are feeling not good enough.
“Honest” feels like the back few pages of our diaries where it is scribbled thought bubbles of our most personal conflicts, the things we really think but are too afraid to say out loud. Nina doesn't seem to have this fear and because of that she offers her listeners more courage to say those things out loud. The truth shall set you free. I asked her what the hardest part of her music journey has been so far and she replied “ I think the hardest part is just coming back to it again and again and again. At the end of the day, I do feel like making music is what I was born to do, it's my connection to the sacred, it just comes to me so naturally. It can be hard to put so much effort into something you care about and not get the external rewards or validation but that stuff isn't important in the end, it's the act of creating without fear that's what really matters”. Well said Nina.
Off the eleven track album you will find something to relate to. Nina is playful, you can just tell this is her passion. She welcomes you into the deepest corners of her perspective. She is a thinker and just like the ocean she is layed and complicated because life is complicated. I asked her what she does to help the songwriting process and she replied “I journal every morning and whenever I'm listening to music, I can't help but take note of the production and songwriting and word choice and I think that all helps when it comes time to sit down and write a song.” As a songwriter one of the greatest gifts is we take a situation that feels so personal to us, make a song out of it and then we share it with the world to find out we are not alone. So maybe Nina did share pieces of her diary with us so that she could heal but in doing so we all heal. Restless Romantic was recently released and is available on Spotify and Bandcmap. Go ahead & follow her on instagram @thisisninaluna.
